Silva bails on Bellator NYC presser, prompting zinger from Sonnen

Wanderlei Silva hasn't exactly pulled his weight in promoting a grudge match four years in the making.

"The Axe Murderer" is "under the weather" and has bowed out of Thursday's Bellator NYC presser in Los Angeles opposite his opponent Chael Sonnen, a promotional official told MMAjunkie's Steven Marrocco on Wednesday. Bellator has reportedly opted to scrap the presser altogether and book a conference call with Silva and Sonnen in its stead.

It didn't take long for the acid-tongued Sonnen to dish on the fiasco via text message.

"It’s not exactly like Pavarotti blowing off Pagliacci," Sonnen told Marrocco. "He wasn’t gonna add anything valuable anyway. I was gonna suggest that he go outside and wash my rental car while I dealt with the media."

This marks the second failed attempt to get the pair of longtime rivals in the same room together. Silva didn't attend the card's first presser in person, although he was able to talk some trash via satellite.

The former "TUF" coaches saw their 2014 date at UFC 175 fall through, but they'll now headline Bellator NYC on June 24 at Madison Square Garden.